Hearn: ‘Jacobs will beat Canelo by decision’

By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn is predicting a decision victory for IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) next Saturday night against WBA/WBC champion Saul Canelo Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) in their important long awaited unification fight on DAZN on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hearn isn’t worried for his fighter Jacobs that the judging crew is the same one that worked the Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin 2 fight on September 15 last year at the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena. The judges are: Dave Moretti, Glenn Feldman and Steve Weisfeld.

“Canelo has a rematch clause, and I’m sure he might exercise it,” Hearn said to Fighthype about the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight. “You’ve got Golovkin as well. Nobody can be undisputed without Demetrius Andrade, and he’s very difficult to beat.”

It would be a win-win situation for Hearn if Jacobs defeats Canelo, and then the Golden Boy Promotions star pushes for an immediate rematch. That would create more interest in Jacobs’ career, and of course bring more subscribers to DAZN. Jacobs is the underdog though, and he’s entering a venue in which Canelo has tasted defeat. He’s marched through four fights at the T-Mobile Arena without losing despite two of his fights appearing to be losses against GGG in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.

“I thought he was going to knock him out, but now I think he’s going to win by a decision,” Hearn said about Jacobs against Canelo. “I can see Danny Jacobs winning a decision. I think he’s very, very experienced. He’s technically very good. He’s very fast. He can punch. He can fight on the inside. He can box and move. It’s not secret that Canelo struggles against movers. If Danny can mix it up and frustrate him on the outside, and he can fight him on the inside as well. Don’t get me wrong. It’s going to be tough. It’s a 50-50 fight,” Hearn said.

It would be best for Jacobs to stay on the outside in this fight, and avoid mixing it up on the inside unless he’s ready to flurry on Canelo the way he did against Peter Quillin and Sergio Mora. It’s risky doing that, but Jacobs might beat Canelo if he can unload on him. Jose Miguel Cotto almost knocked Canelo out by flurrying on him after hurting him in the second round in May 2010.

“I told Demetrius Andrade that, ‘You have no idea what an ideal position you’re in. You are the final piece of the undisputed puzzle,'” Hearn said about Andrade having the WBO middleweight title that the winner of the Canelo vs. Jacobs will want/need for them to unify the 160 lb division. “It looks like he’ll fight [Maciej] Sulecki on June 29th in Providence. We’re going to give him a homecoming. After that, he wants it. He wants the undisputed fight. So even though Danny Jacobs and Demetrius are friends, that could be the undisputed fight,” Hearn said.

Andrade (27-0, 17 KOs) still needs to win his fight against Maciej Sulecki before he can get excited about fighting Canelo or Jacobs. Even if Andrade does win that fight, he probably won’t get the winner of the Canelo vs. Jacob fight. Gennady Golovkin is waiting for the winner of that contest. There’s too much money, and too much fan interest from the boxing public for the winner of the Jacobs-Canelo fight not to face GGG. Besides that, DAZN wants the winner of that fight to face Triple G. Andrade lacks the fan base for him to get one of the big names to fight him. It’s unclear what Jacobs’ view is about unifying. He might not even care. The best fights that can be made for Jacobs are rematches with Canelo and Golovkin. Andrade isn’t as important.